Fruit harvesting machines such as grape harvesters machines commonly are equipped with a shaker assembly which straddles a row of shrubs or vines. The shaker assembly comprises sets of shaker rods which are oscillated to beat or shake the vines vigorously to detach the grapes or bunches of grapes from the vine shrubs. The detached fruit is guided into conveyors on both sides of the vines and conveyed by these conveyors to bins or containers on top of the grape harvester. When the machines reaches the end of a vine row, the bins may be unloaded into a towed cart for further transport to the winery.
The action of the shaker rods on the vines will also detach some foliage therefrom. These leaves are equally received in the conveyors and may get mixed up with the grapes in the bins. Conventionally the harvesting machine is equipped with cleaning mechanism for separating the leaves and other foreign material such as detached wood from the fruit. For example the New Holland Braud grape harvester model SB64 has below the upper run of each conveyor an intermediate apron conveyor for receiving the detached fruit and tipping the same into the bins on each side of the harvester. Over the discharge end of the apron a cleaning fan is installed for extraction of the leaves from the crop material on the apron. The cleaning action is enhanced by the air stream acting on the falling crop.
It has been observed that the fan not only sucks away the foliage, but also drops of valuable fruit juice. The fruit juice results from grape berries which have burst under the impact of the shaker rods. At the discharge end of the intermediate conveyor the air flow sucks away the juice drops and deposits them together with the leaves aside the machine. These losses can be reduced by decreasing the fan speed in order to diminish air speeds, but such action inevitably also reduces the amount of foreign material which is removed from the crop.
FR-A-2.686.530 proposes to provide the fruit harvester with a cleaning system comprising inwardly extending rods retaining the leaves, a mesh funnel installed beneath the rods retaining the grape bunches and the berries, and a full plate funnel receiving the fruit juice which migrated between the rods and through the mesh funnel. Such system is voluminous in size and prone to pollution by crop material sticking to the inner or outer funnels. Furthermore there is no easy access for cleaning the polluted components.
FR-A-2.298.266 discloses a conveyor and cleaning system including conveyor cups or buckets which are provided with transverse ribs for retaining thereon the leaves. Loose grapes and juice are received in tub sections below or between the ribs. The buckets are provided with air inlets on their sides for allowing an effective upward air stream removing the leaves from the ribs. Such arrangement drastically reduces the conveying capacity of the buckets. Furthermore the lower section of the buckets is partially closed such that crop and other material can easily accumulate therein, while access for cleaning is seriously hindered.